Nathan Leuthold murder trial first in Peoria County under new media policy

Saturday

Jul 12, 2014 at 1:00 PM

Andy Kravetz of the Journal Star

PEORIA — When a former Baptist missionary goes before a jury this week on charges he murdered his wife last year, area residents will have their first chance to hear and see testimony from the second-floor courtroom.

Nathan Leuthold’s trial, which is to begin Monday, is the first in Peoria County to be held under the state’s new extended media policy which allows reporters to film and use computers to report while in the trial. The state Supreme Court instituted the change a few years ago in an effort to make the justice system more transparent.

Nearly all the local media outlets and one national network plan to cover all or part of the trial; a move which caused Chief Peoria County Judge Steve Kouri to have the trial moved from one of the normal felony courtrooms to a larger civil courtroom which features high ceilings and dark wood paneling.

“I think it’s a positive thing for the court system in general,” Kouri said last week, noting too that moving the trial offered more use for courtrooms that he said were “among the three nicest in the state.”

Under the local rules, broadcast media will share one camera for video coverage and there will be one photographer for still shots. Reporters will be able to post updates to the Internet as well.

When asked about the new conditions, State’s Attorney Jerry Brady and defense attorney Hugh Toner both declined to comment.

The Feb. 14, 2013, slaying of Denise Leuthold shocked the Far North Peoria neighborhood where it took place and grabbed headlines for days. Schools near the Mossville Road home were placed on “soft lock down” out of fear she was killed by a random person.

The couple had spent 15 years moving back and forth between the United States and Lithuania, working as missionaries there before returning to live in the area a year before Denise’s death. While overseas, the couple started churches and participated in outreach music and sports programs.

Police were called to the home, 700 Mossville Road, by Nathan Leuthold to report a burglary. Just inside the front door, officers found the 39-year-old mother of three dead from a single gunshot wound to the head.

Officials have said there was no sign of forced entry. Two weeks later, Nathan Leuthold was arrested and charged with his wife’s murder.

Police allege he staged a break-in at the home and noted only a few items were missing including a handgun of the same caliber as the one that killed Denise. Police also found a note, believed to be in Denise Leuthold’s handwriting, in a day planner at the house. The note indicates Denise Leuthold believed her husband wanted her dead and he was making her look bad by running around with a 20-year-old Lithuanian woman.

Nathan Leuthold, it appears from prior court hearings, will contend he came home and found his wife lying dead in their home.

The 20-year-old woman, named Aina, who is attending a Christian college in Chicago, initially told police her relationship with Nathan Leuthold was strictly professional. She later admitted the man came to Chicago and the two got a hotel room fewer than “20 times.”

She has denied there was a physical relationship but admitted Nathan Leuthold shared a bank account with her, bought clothing for her and largely funded her living expenses, according to police and prosecutors.

It is anticipated that she will testify for prosecutors. It is believed prosecutors will also use computer files, found on Nathan Leuthold’s laptop computer which were written in Lithuanian. There has been no public disclosure of what those files are or who wrote them, but they could be conversations between the former missionary and Aina.

To accommodate the trial, a new projection screen was installed in the courtroom. The sound system, long derided, has been upgraded giving a glimpse of what Kouri and other judges say is a modernization of the aging courtrooms with newer technology.

The trial is expected to last about a week. A larger than normal number of potential jurors are being brought in Monday to accommodate the Leuthold trial as well as other matters that are scheduled to stand trial.

Andy Kravetz can be reached at 686-3283 or akravetz@pjstar.com. Follow him in Twitter @andykravetz or read his military blog, inFormation, on pjstar.com.